Monday, June 10, 2013

Huntress - Starbound Beast

It’s only been about a year since the release of “Spell
Eater”, but Huntress is back with their second record “Starbound Beast”. If the
imagery and album title don’t give it away, this record is really meant to be
quite similar to the debut; however, in many ways, I found it to be an
evolution of the first album, rather than simply a copy of it.

The biggest draw (or deterrent, depending on your point of
view) to this band is still Jill Janus’ vocals. There’s no doubt that she is a
skilled vocalist, but on the debut record, she was a bit ambitious with her
vocal work. On “Starbound Beast” she tends to have a better understanding of her
range, and she avoids making big changes in pitch in her vocal lines. The end
result is a more focused, better sounding performance than before. She still
makes use of her black metalish screams on occasion, but primarily sings
cleanly throughout the record. Speaking of black metal, that influence has been
dropped from the riffing. While it was mainly prevalent on the title track of “Spell
Eater”, it is rarely found on “Starbound Beast”. Instead, the band opts
for the more straightforward traditional heavy metal sound. There is plenty of
galloping, rhythmic chugging, and even some faster alternate-picked sections. Strangely,
the faster songs are placed on the second half of the record. Both “Zenith” and
“Oracle” bring the speed like no other tracks on the album. The former is a
definite highlight, both for its thrashy riffing and memorable chorus.

The most contentious song on “Starbound Beast” is likely to
be “I Want To Fuck You To Death”, which was co-written by Lemmy. This is my favourite
song on the album, mainly because of the chorus. The guitars perfectly
synchronize a harmony that allows Jill Janus’ melodic, calming vocals to take
over. The rest of the song is a standard Huntress tune, but the chorus is too
catchy to be denied. Another popular choice is likely to be the title track, “Starbound
Beast”. The vocal line in the verse of this song sounds very familiar (almost
Iron Maidenish), but I can’t quite put my finger on what it sounds like. It’s
possible that it’s just so well written that I imagine Maiden writing it
themselves.

With “Starbound Beast”, Huntress has greatly improved on
their debut record. There are more standout songs, and the band seems to have a
better handle on how to blend their unique sound. What I think really made the
difference between “Starbound Beast” and “Spell Eater” is that this new record
sounds a bit more restrained and refined. It seems like the band put a bit more
time into writing quality songs, even if it meant that they weren’t all
blistering fast. The more I listen to this album, the more I enjoy it! If you
wrote off the band after their first record, you are missing out on some
quality metal!